Not too long ago, Mitsuoka introduced that it could construct 10 examples of the Himiko for 2024. The second-generation Himiko relies on the fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata and was first launched again in 2018, so it isn’t precisely new. However admittedly, since then, we fully forgot that it exists. It’s such a low-volume automotive, we’d wish to suppose that’s an comprehensible oversight, but when any automotive web site must be preserving a better eye on Mitsuoka, it’s Jalopnik.

Trying on the Himiko, it’s onerous to overlook an entire lot of Morgan within the design, however on the similar time, the Miata is surprisingly well-integrated. And that’s saying quite a bit contemplating the Himiko is a full 26 inches longer than the Miata that it’s primarily based on. We’re not saying it’s beautiful, but it surely might have and possibly ought to have been a lot worse.

The phantasm that you simply’re something aside from a Miata shortly falls away the second you glimpse the near-stock inside, however you’re a kind of, “I want fashionable vehicles nonetheless appeared like traditional vehicles” individuals, the Himiko might be proper up your alley. We are able to nit-pick minor points similar to a number of the odd proportions all we wish, however that they had an concept and executed it higher than you’d anticipate in the event you heard somebody made a Miata two toes longer after which added a Morgan physique.

Which is basically the place the issue lies. We don’t need “higher than anticipated” or “form of virtually works.” We would like bizarre. We would like WTF. We would like one thing nobody would ever consider making an attempt. Like the Mitsuoka Buddy, which in the event you’re not acquainted, is a Toyota RAV4 modified to form of appear to be a K5 Blazer. Or the Galue, an almost-Bentley primarily based on the Nissan Altima’s Japanese-market cousin the Teana. These are correct Mitsuokas.

The Himiko, then again, is so near wanting like an actual automotive, it simply doesn’t really feel like an actual Mitsuoka. The place’s the Orochi spirit? A Mazda-based Himiko may be extra dependable in the long term, however we’d take an actual Morgan as an alternative, thanks very a lot.